CONFIDENTIAL
11 March 1992
HKA 233/1
Mrs Sandra Brown
HM Treasury Parliament Street
LONDON
Dear
Sudra
HONG KONG HMOCS
Foreign & Commonwealth
Office
London SWIA 2AH
FILE 94
1. I am sorry to be a little slow in giving you a report of Lord Caithness' visit to Hong Kong last week. The Foreign Secretary mentions this in his reply of today's date to the Chief Secretary's letter of 4 March, but I thought you might like a little more detail.
2. News of Mr Mellor's letter reached us in Hong Kong only minutes before Lord Caithness was due to meet representatives of the Hong Kong HMOCS Association. He naturally wanted to reflect carefully on the points in the Chief Secretary's Lord letter before saying anything substantive to them. Caithness therefore confined himself to saying that we were making progress and to indicating that he expected to have a statement for them within a few days. The HMOCS officers expressed their concerns in familiar terms. They pointed out that the Association was due to elect its officers formally on 26 March, and the moderates currently in charge of the Association would find it difficult to obtain endorsement against more radical candidates unless they could point to progress rather than expressions of good intention by them. n 3. As the Foreign Secretary explains in his minute, when our Ministers had reflected on the Chief Secretary's proposals they continued to see difficulties with his proposed re-formulation of the paragraph on pension matters ie sterling safeguards and SPOS. They therefore agreed (final sentence of para 6 of Mr Mellor's letter) that it would be
They better to say nothing at all on pensions at this stage. also judged that in these circumstances it would be better to keep the introductory prose of the draft statement in reserve for a future occasion, and thus confine the announcement in
NJCAAY
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.